The Ins And Outs Of Aligning Sheetmetal.

Muscle cars are known for their high-powered chunks of iron and burly-shaped body panels. But as time goes by, parts degrade, panels start to sag, and body gaps become uneven, which takes away from the overall appearance and value of the car. Let's face it: it just plain sucks if the hood hits the fender when you close it, or you have to slam the door to get it to shut. If you are building anything that will grace a car show field, the difference between winning and losing can be uneven body panel fitment. Even panels will definitely enhance resale value.

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This story will map out the proper procedure to get all your gaps even and the doors shutting like butter. You will want to adjust all your gaps before the bodywork gets started because sometimes it takes more than just shims and adjustments to get them perfect. This is not always the case, but you don't want to find out you need to bend or grind some sheetmetal after it has been painted.

The quarters and rockers are fixed on the body so all the body gap adjustments will be established from these two pieces of the body. Working forward, the doors will be lined up first, and then the fenders will be lined up against the doors, then the hood will get lined up between the fenders. You see where we are going here? You have to work in a specific order or you will just waste time. So kick back and follow along as we get the body lines on this '66 Chevelle gapped to perfection.

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Here are the two basic things we needed to get our '66 Chevelle lined up. A new set of door hinges we got from Dick Brant at True Connections and an assortment of shims we ordered from Body Supply and Fastener Company. The new door hinges are Dynacorn parts and ended up fitting perfectly. The shims will be the key components to getting the gaps right on the fenders and its better to have a box of new stuff then having to spend a day at the boneyard pulling old shims.

Here is a shot of the door gap, and as you can see the door is definitely low. Either the door is just out of adjustment or the hinges are toast. A quick way to tell if your hinges are worn out is to open the door and lift up. If it moves more then just a hair there is slop in the hinges. The hinges on this car had a ton of slop and needed to be replaced before the doors could be adjusted properly.

To get the best results (and to make the job easier), the front clip was removed. With it out of the way, all the door hinge bolts are easily accessed. To detach the door so the hinges can be swapped out, the bolts that connect the hinge to the body were removed.

With the door off, the new lower hinge was installed with the factory hardware. This lower hinge is an exact reproduction of the original and even features the proper components to let the door open all the way. Some other reproduction hinges can limit how far the door opens. When installing for the first time, position the hinge all the way towards the inside of the door. This will put the door all the way out in its adjustment and its easier to push the door in then pry it out. Only one of the bolts will be tightened all the way at this time, the rest will be left loose, that way we'll only need to loosen one bolt to adjust the door.

The upper hinge is a stamped steel piece instead of a cast aluminum unit. Even though it is a little different in construction, it won't limit the door's opening. The major difference is the hardware used to hold it on. The new hinge uses conventional bolts instead of the factory countersunk Phillips heads.

Before hanging the door, the striker pin is removed. That way we won't have to fight it as we adjust the door.

With the door on, we can start the adjustment process. The bolts that connect to the front edge of the door will dictate the in and out adjustment while the bolts on the body will dictate the forward and back adjustment.

Since the quarter-panels and the lower rockers are fixed, we want to center the door in the opening. We set the in and out adjustment first by lining the front edge of the door with the lower rocker and the A pillar. Then we moved the hinges around until we had an even gap at the rear edge and along the bottom. We needed to adjust the same hinge a few times before the door was perfect. Once the door was lined up, we tightened the bolts on the hinge to lock in the position.

When you get it right, the door should look like this at the back edge-perfectly plum with the quarter-panel and the lower edge of the rocker. Now we could reinstall the striker pin and tighten until it's just snug. Leaving it just snug will allow the latch assembly to move the pin to the right location by slowly closing the door while holding in the door handle button.

The front end can now be set back on the car. The only hardware that we'll put in right now are the core support bolts.

Here is what we had with no shims in place. You can see the hood and fender are too low. We need to get the fender lined up first before adjusting the hood.

The height of the fender is adjusted by adding shims at this location. Each car will need a different amount of shims, which is why it's good to have an assortment. We added one shim at a time until the fender was level with the A pillar and the cowl.

Once the height is set, we moved to the width. If the fenders are too close together you will have a clearance issue with the hood and the doors. These shims will space out the fender so it will line up with the door and the A pillar.

The last bit of shims needed for the fender adjustment will go between the bottom of the fender and the body. These shims adjust the curve of the fender to match the door. More shims will flatten out the fender while less will create more curve. We tightened the bolt until the fender had the right curvature to match the door. Then we found the right amount of shims to fill the void.

On to the hood. The first step is to make sure the core support is in the right spot. This shot lets us know the core support needs to shift to the passenger side, because the gap gets bigger towards the front on the drivers side and it's the exact opposite on the passenger's side. You could break out the tape measure here but the hood has to fit anyway so just line it up to that.

A little persuasion with a pry bar shifted the core support enough before tightening the hardware.

To get the back of the hood up, simply raise the back of the hinge unless it's already as high as it will go. This was the case with this car. Dropping the front of the hood hinge just a bit raised the back that little extra we needed.

To get the back of the hood up, simply raise the back of the hinge unless it's already as high as it will go. This was the case with this car. Dropping the front of the hood hinge just a bit raised the back that little extra we needed.

If the hood is not centered between the fenders after you have both sides done, then you can open the hood and give it a push to the side that has the biggest gap. Yes it looks archaic, but it works.

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